ANTIGUA COULD HOLD THE KEY TO PANDORA'S BOX

4 January 2008

"It's the wild West Indies, and every major copyright holder may be taken along for a ride."


The marketing publication Clickz has examined the World Trade Organisation ruling that gave Antigua and Barbuda the right to violate up to $21 million a year in copyright and trade mark protections of US companies following the online gambling tussle between the two nations.

The article quotes the New York Times, which reported: "...the ruling is significant in that it grants a rare form of compensation: the right of one country, in this case Antigua, to violate intellectual property laws of another -- the United States -- by allowing it to distribute copies of American music, movie and software products."

The Clickz piece then asks the question "Were U.S. media companies consulted about this deal before it was offered? I wonder if there aren't people in Antigua right now snapping up every (remaining) video-related domain name."

The author opines that the issue has the potential to explode right back in the face of the United States. By essentially giving people or companies in Antigua a free pass to distribute content without the copyright holder's permission, the WTO opens a Pandora's box of video and music piracy that will be very difficult to close back up - and there are already rumblings in those American industries about having to pay for government intransigence in an unrelated industry.

Even if the U.S. government strictly enforces the perceived dollar value of copyright violation, it's been proven many times before that it's difficult to assign a mutually agreed-upon value to each offence, Clickz points out before commenting that the US might be looking at another video distribution free-for-all reminiscent of the early days of Napster and Kazaa. "Before anyone in a suit knew what was going on -- but every college kid sure did. It's the wild West Indies, and every major copyright holder may be taken along for a ride."

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